| |APRIL 202119HOW MOISTURE CAN MAKE AND BREAK THE FOOD WE PRODUCE AND EAT?By Dinesh Gupta, Director, Bry-Air (Asia)oisture presence can have serious ad-verse effects on food products. The pre-cise amount of moisture is important for the quality, taste and shelf life and even a slight variation can harm the physical properties of a food item. While maintaining a moisture-free en-vironment is essential even at smaller places such as home and office, it is furthermore important in food processing plants. Food safety is, probably, one of the most import-ant issues that food processing companies face day-in and day-out. Concern for public health in the case of potentially devastating consequences of contam-inated food have driven industry associations, safe-ty experts and watchdog organizations to establish guidelines not only for food handling but, for plant and process line design as well. Moisture control is essential in every segment of the food industry in the spheres of storage, pro-duction, packaging or processing. Think for a mo-ment, what would be your reaction when salt from the salt shaker refuses to flow or the coffee jar you have just opened for a sizzling hot coffee is all hard-ened? Now put the packaging and processing ma-chinery in the same situation, sticky powders can interfere with the operation and obstruct the free and easy movement of the foodstuff. Something as simple as an instant juice powder or drink mix be-comes a double problem. Not only the powder mix lump refuses to flow smoothly in humid conditions, but it also hinders the functioning of the packaging equipment.MTHOUGHT CENTRAL Dinesh Gupta
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